Science says that thinking can burn considerable calories

omg
20/09/2018

Sometimes we encounter some issues in our life that need some brainpower. It can be time-consuming solving the problem, and sometimes the rewards we reap aren't that beneficial or exciting. But now science has proved that when ever we have moment where we have to think quite hard, we have another added benefit of burning calories!

Ewan McNay, an assistant professor of psychology and behavioral neuroscience at the University of Albany, has studied in-depth how the brain uses energy to perform work. During a difficult memorization task, for example, the parts of your brain involved in memory formation will start consuming more energy, but other brain areas will show no such increase.

“You will in fact burn more energy during an intense cognitive task than you would vegging out watching Oprah or whatever,” he says.

The study concludes that during a typical day, a person uses about 320 calories just to think.

McNay also reveals that if you were doing something really demanding that uses multiple senses—something like learning to play an instrument, you would be more likely to burn more calories.

So get out the tricky crossword puzzles, try a new instrumental or get stuck into the hard stuff at work as you could just be burning loads of unwanted calories!